Parakalein

Someone struggling with their sense of God and with the apparent duplicity of a God of Love on the right hand and a God of Hatred and Wrath on the left hand, cited the passage about Elisha the prophet and the malling of children.

II KIngs 2:23-25 records the story:
Elisha went to Bethel (The House of God).  As he was walking along the road some youth came out of the town and jeered (made fun of) him, "Go on up, old baldy, Go on up you bald-head".  He turned around looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord.  then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty two of the youths.  He went on to Mount Carmel.


This does not make sense on first reading and as it has been interpreted.  This creates confusion and falsehood.  Therefore my conclusion is two fold, one it is authored for that purpose and we have misunderstood it as God is not a God of confusion but a God of peace.  I see no peace here.


The traditional self serving use and interpretation of this passage is to tell people that they need to fear God and fear mocking or treating God's prophets disrespectfully.  If people speak ill of the prophet God will get them.  This serves the prophets and the prophet's organization allowing them to abuse and misuse their authority and calling.  The use of threat and fear are neither good values or serve any value. Fear and intimidation are not Godly.  If I know that as a parent or leader why would I think that this passage supports if not directs that way of thinking.  We have obviously misread something.   So lets look closer at healthy alternatives not because we know them to be true but because we know the current understanding is not true.  We assume that this is God acting.  Assumptions are by definition that, not truths.

So Elisha is walking down the road on a nice sunny spring day.  He is enjoying quiet time and communion with his God.  He is mediating and so is mindful of spirit and soul, body and mind. Some youth see him and see his bald head shining in the suns rays.  They are youth.  They are being kids.  I have had kids taunt me just to see if they can disturb my peace center.  Adults do this too.  If they unnerve me it is on me being drawn off focus.  If I remain focus I ignore them, send them a blessing or maybe in a kidding way try to scare them.  I might say, "Watch out guys or God will get you, then laugh".  So the kids taunted the prophet and the prophet fired back.  We read anger and hostility into his statement. "He turned to them and called down a curse from the Lord God".  I know there is no proof of how he turned or the tone of his voice or his kidding nature.  At the same time would that not make more sense.  If I can spin a story in the way it makes sense or spin it in a way it does not make sense except to use it for my self-serving end, why would I not choose the good spin!

Then the story gets worse.  It appears that the Lord sent a bear out of the woods to maul the youth to teach them a lesson they and humanity will never forget>  Really?  You think that is God.  God sent his son to die to teach us all to never forget the love and grace of God for all humanity no matter what they do or say.

So what if the enemy of truth and grace, the author of confusion, and the original deceiver saw an opportunity to send a bear out of the woods to maul the children and to maul the belief in a God of love and grace.  That would make sense.  That is his purpose.  The youth, 42 of them, were killed by one bear and it was God doing the killing.  The youth, 42 of them, were killed by a bear.  Elisha, undeterred by their jeering, offered God's love and grace to the families of this tragedy and did not see it or interpret it as God's wrath.  He in fact maybe felt bad for his joking remark. He saw this moment as a moment to extend God's love and grace.  He offered grace then went on to Mt Carmel.

I do not know what happened that day.  I do know that when I react with anger, threat and intimidation it is not God in me acting it is a part of me that is triggered that I have responsibility to control and care for.  I also know that when horrible events happen in the world they do not happen because God is mad at any one or they would be happening daily to all of us.  Threats and fears are not of peace and love.  Grace and truth are of peace and love.

Several years ago I was called to serve a church and the former interim pastor and retired missionary stayed on as a 'helpful presence".  Some tension resulted in my asking him to meet me at the top of a mountain to talk through what was going on between us.  I invited him to be honest with me.  He told me that he felt I was not called of God, that I was ego centric and that my psychology was deceiving me so I could not hear or walk with God".  I did not think about asking a bear to come out of the woods but a gentle wind blew and blew his toupee off his head.  He was bald.  I looked at him and said, "so you are not able to let your bald head be seen so have to cover it up but I am the one with an ego problem."
The truth is we all have ego problems, we use and interpret things in a self-serving way.  The fruit of self-control has us see ourselves and events from love and grace perspectives.  As you can imagine a fruitful discussion occurred with little change except he did begin to show up in church without his toupee.  I also committed to never wear a toupee and to just let my now bald head be what it is.  I have had youth mock it a bit.  I respond with the grace that God put in me.

I think Elisha did as well!  Maybe, who knows?